When I wrote the Year 2025 in review post, I expected an announcement for the Wildcat Lake CPUs at CES 2026, but instead, Intel initially introduced the high-end Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” family. I assumed the Wildcat Lake announcement was postponed, but some users’ reports on X indicate the company did demonstrate the new Core Series 3 (no “Ultra” there) “Wildcat Lake” processors as lower-end Core Series 3 “Panther Lake” SKUs. Intel has yet to disclose part names, and there’s nothing about the Wildcat Lake on Intel Ark at the time of writing. However, some information was shared through slides and X users. Intel Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” key features and specifications: CPU – Hexa-core processor with 2x Cougar Cover P-cores (Performance cores), 4x Darkmont LPE-cores (Low-Power Efficient cores) GPU – 2x Xe-core Intel Xe3 graphics (no ray tracing, not designed for gaming) AI accelerator – Intel […]
Year 2025 in Review, CNX Software stats, and looking ahead to 2026
Time for the last post of 2025, as the year is almost over. I’ll look back at key developments and notable products launched in 2025, share some CNX Software website traffic statistics, and look ahead to 2026. Year 2025 in Review After 22 product releases in 2024, Raspberry Pi calmed down a little bit in 2025, and the highlights of the year included the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard, the 5-inch variant of the Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2, and a Raspberry Pi 5 1GB RAM. What didn’t quite stop were the accessories from third parties for Raspberry Pi SBC and Raspberry Pi Pico boards. The most exciting Arm SoC release of 2025 was probably the 12-core CIX P1 Armv9 SoC found in Radxa Orion O6 SBC, MINISFORUM MS-R1 Arm mini PC, and Orange Pi 6 Plus board, but while performance was fine, it was overhyped in 2024, and software […]
VisionFive 2 Lite SBC Review – Ubuntu 24.04 on a low-cost RISC-V SBC in 2026
StarFive has sent me a sample of the VisionFive 2 Lite RISC-V SBC for review. It’s a low-cost credit card-sized board based on the StarFive JH7110S quad-core RISC-V SBC and designed to get started with Linux RISC-V on the cheap. When I first tested the earlier VisionFive 2 SBC with a StarFive JH7110 RISC-V SoC in February 2023, I didn’t call it a review, but rather a hands-on experience, since, at the time, many features still didn’t work properly. Almost three years have passed since then, so reviewing the VisionFive 2 Lite SBC with Ubuntu 24.04 will allow us to see how much progress has been made on the software side. If you are in a rush, you can jump to the what works, what doesn’t section. VisionFive 2 Lite unboxing I received the board in a plastic box with a cover reading “VisionFive 2 Lite Your Gateway to RISC-V”. […]
Forlinx FET1126Bx-S low-power Rockchip RV1126BJ industrial SoM powers SBC with 40-pin GPIO header
Forlinx has recently released the FET1126Bx-S, a low-power SoM, which is based on the Rockchip RV1126B (commercial) or RV1126BJ (industrial) SoC. Designed for edge AI applications, the module is suitable for smart cameras, AIoT gateways, and intelligent monitoring systems where local video analytics, low power consumption, and long-term stability are required. It is easy to confuse the newer RV1126B/RV1126BJ with the original Rockchip RV1126, a 32-bit Cortex-A7-based SoC announced around 2020–2021. However, the newer RV1126B/BJ comes with a significant architectural upgrade with a 64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor (instead of the original 32-bit quad-core Cortex-A7) and a more powerful 3.0 TOPS NPU (up from 2.0 TOPS). This updated chip has only recently started appearing in products like Luckfox Aura SBC, Boardcon MINI1126B-P SoM (based on the RV1126B-P), GL.iNet Comet PoE, and GL.iNet Comet Pro KVMs, all of which were released just this year. This makes the FET1126Bx-S SoM one of the […]
OpenMediaVault 8 (OMV8) ” Synchrony” released for 64-bit x86 (AMD64) and Arm (ARM64) platforms only
OpenMediaVault 8, or OMV8 for shorts, codenamed “Synchrony” has been released, now supporting only 64-bit architectures (AMD64 and ARM64), and dropping 32-bit systems based on the i386, armel, and armhf architectures. OpenMediaVault is a popular, open-source network-attached storage (NAS) solution based on Debian Linux that’s been around for many years. I had my first experience with it in 2017 when I reviewed FriendlyELEC NanoPi NEO NAS Kit based on a NanoPi NEO2 SBC with an Allwinner H5 64-bit Cortex A53 SoC, but sadly not recommended for OMV8 (more on that below). The main reason for killing 32-bit support is that the Salt Project only supports 64-bit builds. OpenMediaVault 8 highlights: Upgrade to Debian 13 (Trixie). Replace cpufrequtils with linux-cpupower Improve several user and group-related RPCs. Developers should note that the RPCs UserMgmt::enumerateSystemUsers, UserMgmt::enumerateUsers, UserMgmt::enumerateAllUsers and UserMgmt::getUserList now return only basic user information. Set the parameter detail to full to get […]
Firefly CAM-3576 series – Tiny Rockchip RK3576 SBCs for commercial, industrial, and automotive applications
Firefly Technology has introduced the CAM-3576 series of tiny (38 × 38 mm) SBCs based on the Rockchip RK3576 processor with a 6 TOPS NPU for AIoT, edge AI, smart vision, industrial, and automotive applications. It comes in three variants, which include the CAM-3576Q38 (commercial), the CAM-3576JQ38 (industrial), and the CAM-3576MQ38 (automotive) modules designed for smart cameras, intelligent security systems, dash cams, and private on-device AI model deployment. The CAM-3576 series supports up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, up to 256GB eMMC flash, and also includes a microSD card for expansion. Additionally, the boards feature a MIPI CSI input for up to 16MP camera sensors with HDR support, Fast Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, USB 2.0, USB-C (device), RS-485, UART, I²C, ADC, GPIOs, audio input/output, and RTC support. Firefly CAM-3576Q38 specifications: SoM – ICORE-3576Q38 SoC – Rockchip RK3576 (Q38 – Commercial) or Rockchip RK3576J (JQ38 – Industrial) or Rockchip RK3576M (MQ38 – Automotive) […]
CrowPi 3 AI Learning Kit is powered by a Raspberry Pi 5 SBC, works with Arduino Nano, BBC Micro:bit, and Raspberry Pi Pico boards
Elecrow CrowPi 3 is the latest CrowPi learning and development kit featuring 41 built-in modules and over 150 lessons, and offering compatibility with Raspberry Pi 5, Arduino Nano, BBC Micro:bit, and Raspberry Pi Pico single board computers and development boards. It follows the CrowPi portable learning kit (Raspberry Pi 3B+/Zero), CrowPi 2 Raspberry Pi 4 electronics learning laptop, and CrowPi L laptop (Raspberry Pi 4 models), but the CrowPi 3 is the first to focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) learning with a Raspberry Pi 5 and support for LLMs like DeepSeek, Google Gemini, and OpenAI chat besides courses about electronics and computer vision. CrowPi 3 specifications: Compatible boards Raspberry Pi 5 (required) – Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Arm Cortex-A76, up to 2.4GHz, 4GB or 8GB RAM. OS: Raspberry Pi OS (Debian Linux) or others Optional via headers or slots Arduino Nano Raspberry Pi Pico 1/1 W/2/2 W BBC micro:bit Display – […]
Radxa Dragon Q6A Arm SBC gets official Windows 11 preview
While most people use Linux on Arm SBCs, it’s typically possible to run Windows 11 on Arm boards with UEFI support, but with caveats such as the GPU and VPU not working and other issues. One solution is to avoid the Arm architecture altogether and go with an x86 SBC like the Radxa X4, ODROID-H4+, or LattePanda IOTA, among others. But things may change for the better now that Qualcomm SBCs are becoming a thing, and Radxa has just announced official Windows support for the Radxa Dragon Q6A. Note that it is only a preview image for now. Nevertheless, here’s what is working without installing additional drivers on Windows 11: HDMI output (inherited from UEFI GOP) PCIe – Note: NVMe available; system does not include network card drivers eMMC flash UFS USB 2.0 USB 3.0, but devices must be connected before booting into the system But once you install drivers, […]

